Home/Sport/ Lakers vs. Mavericks Recap: The good, the bad and the Ball

Lakers vs. Mavericks Recap: The good, the bad and the Ball

Lorenzo Powers |Wednesday, January 09, 2019

Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

The forward was hurt during Wednesday's loss to the Thunder and was out of the game at halftime.

James ranks 5th in the National Basketball Association in scoring with 27.3 points a game and is also averaging 8.3 rebounds and 7.1 assists a game.

Coach Luke Walton, who already was without James (groin), Rajon Rondo (finger) and Michael Beasley (personal reasons) in the loss, is hopeful Kuzma doesn't make the Lakers' injury list any longer. "That's more diving for loose balls, communicating loudly, grabbing [rebounds]", said Walton about Ball and Ingram. Fortunately, an MRI came back negative, but team doctors said he'd likely miss a couple of weeks in order to fully recover. The Lakers have dropped 3 of 4 games without the four-time NBA Most Valuable Player.

The Lakers badly needed a strong response after last night's game and finally offered one on Monday. "We've had moments in most of these games on the road where we could have won".

The lack of offensive options was clearly evident as the Lakers' starting five accounted for just 34 points on 11-for-41 shooting.

LeBron James may miss another month, according to OnSmash, due to what is now believed to be a sports hernia injury.

Hart was a -17 at Minnesota after scoring 10 points on 3-for-12 shooting, and went into the Mavericks game having made just 25.6% of his shots - as well as four of his last 22 three-pointers - in three games in January.

Of course, part of the problem is that it isn't just James out of action for Los Angeles.

Kuzma is averaging 18.3 points and 5.8 rebounds in 38 games.

Ingram scored 29 points and Ball added 21 as the Los Angeles Lakers handed the Mavericks a rare home loss, 107-97, on Monday night. Obviously, we did a little bit last year, but this year we always had Bron [James], we had Do [Rondo], and guys like that to help settle things down and get us in the stuff.